March 2009
Latest airline collapse highlights protection failings
Following their collapse, Lithuanian Airlines are unable to provide refunds, highlighting just one of the benefits of making travel reservations through Medway Travel rather booking direct via the Internet.
According to ABTA, the collapse of Lithuanian Airlines - flyLAL – has once again exposed a gap in consumer protection. The carrier is the 17th airline failure in little over a year and follows on the heels of the likes of Eos, MaxJet, Silverjet, XL Airways, LTE and Oasis Hong Kong Airlines.
Passengers who were booked with flyLAL were only protected if they had booked their flights as part of a package holiday. Other customers may not get their money back as the airline stated that it is unable to provide refunds.
ABTA has repeatedly called on the government to require all airlines to provide financial protection for passengers. Scheduled airlines such as flyLAL do not provide protection against failure.
Medway Travel can advise that at the time of the airline’s collapse we did have passengers booked to fly with flyLAL. Fortunately, as all airline bookings are covered by our Airline Failure Guarantee, we were able to re-book the passengers concerned onto alternative flights and claim back the cost of the original tickets which had been purchased. Our Consultants were able to do this with no inconvenience to the travellers and the monies had been refunded within 1 week of the claim. This highlights just one of the benefits of making travel reservations through Medway Travel rather than booking direct via the Internet.
With the possibility of other airlines suffering the same fate, we strongly advise our readers not to be tempted to book their own flights directly with airlines or through impersonal intermediaries.
